If you’re in town feel free to roam Washington Road and adjacent areas – nice and clean and ready to entertain this one week out of the year. It’s not always like that.

If you return to Washington Road any other week of the year, the stores will all be as you remember them, and the traffic almost as bad as you remember. What’s gone, however, is the frisson: Gone are the smiling white men in Easter egg-hued pants streaming onto the grounds clutching their golden badges. Gone are the entrepreneurs selling those men Macanudos and Cohibas and Ashton Churchills as fat as a pipefitter’s fingers. Gone is the tent for the Christian Motorcyclists Association Resurrection Riders with tattooed men in “Riding for the Son” jackets hawking pop the color of antifreeze, and the black guy on the sidewalk with a hand-lettered sign advertising “cold juicy apples” from an old Styrofoam cooler that appears to have recently held bait. Hooters — yeah, it’s still here, still packed, but now the crowd comes for Monday Night Football, not the Green Jacket Bikini Contest.

What’s gone, in short, is the party, and the feverish city-wide embrace of golf and belief in its saving powers, or at least belief in the redemptive power of golf’s money, and the feeling — for a single week in April — as real and heady as the azalea-drenched air that, just maybe, all things are possible here.

Summer doesn’t abandon Georgia by late October. Step outside and a soft washcloth-slap of humidity reminds you that you’re in the South. The sky has the kind of look that wouldn’t be welcome if on a boat a far piece from land — bright but reconsidering, edged with cauliflower cumulus. In the yards not far from the National, the azalea blossoms have been replaced by red Georgia football pennants. This is Dawg country. The only challenge to their popularity is the political yard sign. It’s election season in Augusta. And many Augustans say the autumn’s mayoral race is crucial — the indicator whether this city will finally grope its way forward.

This is a city still shaking off the blows of its past, some of them subtle, some as sharp as grenade blasts: a violent race riot in 1970 that drew national attention, suburban malls that sprang up in the late ’70s, further decimating the once-vibrant downtown. Between 1950 and 1986, the city’s population dropped more than 40 percent, from a high of 72,000 to 42,000. Augusta was dying. So in 1996 voters agreed to merge governments with the surrounding county.

Suddenly — immediately — shrunken Augusta became swollen Augusta-Richmond County, the second-largest municipality in Georgia behind Atlanta — 200,000 people today. A chunk of Georgia that spraddles from high-rises to piney-woods, all under the name Augusta. During last year’s Masters, the local newspaper, The Augusta Chronicle, reported the arrest of a local man for making moonshine.

The consolidation was supposed to be salvation, but it hasn’t worked out that way.

Chris Solomon wrote those words ten years ago, yesterday. And salvation still alludes Georgia’s second city. Some things have changed for the better: the interstates have been rebuilt and widened, making escapes faster. Others changed for the worse: Darius Rucker continues to plague the area each Spring. A few more government contracts and monies, a little more traffic, more sex trafficking. Most Augustans are willfully oblivious to most of reality. The sacred pile of magic bricks collapsed late last year, casting a pall of misery over the already struggling Detroit of the South.

When I published my first book I decided to shoot a promo video on YouTube. That turned into a haphazard experiment in videography. Here, I strive for consistency, if incoherent. I’m in the 42nd week in a row of at least one post per day. That pays off, kind of.

Over at YouTube, the story is different. I haven’t made a video in months. The quality is substandard. I ramble. Blah, blah, blah.

Yet, and still, I just found out that my bumbling attempts to entertain on-screen have garnered over 1,000 views since I started in the Fall of 2015. For such low effort that’s a lot. Many thanks to my dedicated four or five subscribers. Will do better in the future. Promise. Fingers not crossed…

Here, things are great but still looking to go to the next level (whatever that is).

I have over 50 drafts sitting around in need to completion. Will do better. Fingers … yeah. On the published side, I’m nearing 1,200 posts. So, overall, my resume could be updated to reflect thousands of published articles, blurbs, books, etc. How many? No idea. North of 2,000, so …. thousands.

It seems the myth of idyllic American suburbia, with white picket fences, carpools, and all that, is not all that. A myth perhaps…

Getting lost in suburbia is taking on a grim new meaning in the U.S.

The nation’s suburbs, once the wellspring of the American Dream, now has the highest rate of premature deaths from drug overdoses, according to a new findings from the County Health Rankings, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Just a decade ago, America’s suburbs had the lowest rate of premature death from ODs.

The spike in drug-related deaths is contributing to what County Rankings’ Marjory Givens said is setting off “alarm bells” among public health experts: More younger Americans are dying prematurely, especially those aged 15 to 44. The drug overdose epidemic is the top cause of early death among 25- to 44-year-olds, an age many people in this group traditionally buy their first homes and embark on careers.

Yet for many adults, such achievements appear unobtainable, leading to what experts call “deaths of despair.”

Did your Realtor mention the deaths of despair? No. Can’t blame her.

This graph speaks volumes:

The downtrodden of the inner cities still get most of the attention. Seems things may have changed – they did change. And, I’ll note that all areas seem to be getting worse.

So, to help you track your particular suburb, city, town, or farm country,

Find out about your county and area. There’s some pretty good information linked to the maps. Go investigate.

*A tie-in to my early piece on the robot invasion: this will all be cured once the cyborgs take over. They don’t use drugs, they don’t get depressed, and they never get sick. Or die. Or care about taking your job. But anyway….

Job-stealing robots aren’t some distant scenario that’s unlikely to cause problems for another “50 to 100 years” from now, as Donald Trump’s treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin said in an interview last week.

New research released from the National Bureau of Economic Research yesterday shows that between 1990 and 2007, when one or more industrial robots were introduced into the workforce, it led to the elimination of 6.2 jobs within a local area where people commute for work.

The report, which was authored by economists Daron Acemoglu of MIT and Pascual Restrepo of Boston University, found that the wages of workers also declined slightly as a result of robots entering the U.S. economy. Wages dropped between 0.25 percent and 0.50 percent per 1,000 employees when one or more robots came into the picture.

Within the years studied, robots were responsible for the loss of up to 670,000 manufacturing jobs, a number that could rise as more companies are expected to turn to industrial robots in the coming years, according to the paper.

It started with heavy manufacturing. Then it moved to deliveries, checkouts, and gas pumps. Now the focus is on Uber and driverless vehicles. AI also cooks up some mean legal briefs though this hasn’t become mainstream yet. Yet. Next, in the very near future, robots and AI will write novels and perform surgeries.

This is all well and good until one ponders what jobs will be immune from automation. It seems any field is susceptible. What, exactly, will humans do with their free time and lack of employment?

Business Insider / Asimov.

If history is a guide, then people will probably concentrate on making more people and killing more people. Habits are hard to break. Robots can and will move into those endeavors as well, particularly the latter.

He spent the night before Game 1 of the 1995 World Series sleeping in his truck in a parking lot in Perry, Ga. The first World Series game Jones would ever play in fell on Opening Day of deer hunting season in Georgia. “Why can’t I do both,” he wondered. “What better way to burn off some nervous energy and kill some time than getting out in the woods?” The front desk was unmanned at the hotel where his parents were staying some two hours south of Atlanta when he arrived around 2 a.m. So he caught a few Z’s in his truck before going hunting with his dad. Then he drove straight back to Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium to face Orel Hershiser and the Cleveland Indians.

The Braves won that game (3-2) and the Series of 95 (ATL’s only championship). Some might attribute the success to a good night’s sleep. Other’s might say the peace and clarity of hunting transferred to the field. Might have something to do with talent and spirit too.

Fresh Off The Grid.

The moral of the story is: if you’re locked out at 2 AM, just crash in the car. Crack a window.

Theresa May will issue an appeal to the country to “come together” as she formally launches the process for the UK to leave the European Union.

Nine months after the divisive Brexit referendum last June, the Prime Minister will officially trigger Article 50 in a letter that will be hand delivered in Brussels.

At the same time, in a statement to MPs in the Commons, she will pledge to get the right deal for everyone in the UK, including EU nationals living in this country.

“We are one great union of people and nations with a proud history and a bright future,” she will say.

“And, now that the decision has been made to leave the EU, it is time to come together.”

“Dear EU: Later losers.” Sky News.

There’s still a potential two-years of red tape; the exit process could be draconian. Could be – no one has ever done it before. Whatever it takes, it will be worth it. No Brit can serve London and Brussels.

We could have used an Article 50 in that … what was it called? Constitution… The 1860’s might have been a lot more peaceful.

A Massachusetts law enforcement official testifying before Congress on Tuesday called for leaders of sanctuary cities to be arrested.

Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson told the House Subcommittee on Illegal Immigration that sanctuary cities “have become magnets for illegal aliens, some of which have violent criminal records.”

“If these sanctuary cities are going to harbor and conceal criminal illegal aliens from ICE, which is in direct violation of Title 8 of the U.S. Code, federal arrest warrants should be issued for their elected officials,” Hodgson said. “Our citizens would be safer if we never stopped enforcing immigration law and if we never formed or turned a blind eye toward sanctuary cities.”

Mass of all places! Hats off to this man. And, if the comments with the story are any indication, the Yankees are fed up with the invasion. Hope, that.

Now that Trump is headed for the highest office, it remains to be seen if he will follow through. One sign that he might do so is his pick for Attorney General: Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions. Under existing law Trump and Sessions will have great power to tame immigration.

The other side refuses to lie down, even after their electoral beating this month. Their tenacity is to be commended. Like their criminal friends and constituents, their leaders have vowed to evade the law. The mayors of “sanctuary cities” across the nation declare they will allow illegal immigrants to stay in spite of the coming crackdown. Sessions may have a harsh answer for them.

The Senator has indicated he may well use his coming authority to strip said cities of federal funding. He also has a more drastic option at his disposal (or, he will).

knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation …

[Or who] aids or abets the commission of any of the preceding acts,
shall be punished…

in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(ii), (iii), (iv), or (v)(II), be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both…

Being a mayor or city official is not an exemption to “any person” as contemplated by the law. And certain circumstances elevate some violations to 20-year felony status.

Always ahead on everything. Read it here, today, or wait months for the world to catch up.

By the way, don’t look for too many prosecutions anytime soon. Republicans, we’re dealing with here…

The situation facing President Donald Trump features none of those advantages. His party is divided and his congressional leadership is weakened after the health care debacle. Key players are inexperienced. Trump has record low approval ratings. Republicans who control all of Washington are planning on going it alone, without help from Democrats.

Now, there isn’t even basic agreement on what revising the tax code is. Trump is promising “massive tax relief for the middle class.” Congressional leaders are pushing an overhaul that would keep gross tax revenues roughly the same – “revenue neutral” in Washington-speak – while clearing away many tax breaks and using the resulting savings to lower rates, with the top brackets getting most of the benefit.

So much is different; so much the same. 50% or 40% – any tax rate above 0% is too high for my tastes. I may be alone in that thought.

Reagan had been in office five years, a veteran at that point. Congress was run by, whatever else they were, professionals. Other than that, things were pretty much the same: in 1986:

Conservatives claimed and agenda they either didn’t believe in or didn’t understand.

Liberals wanted more government in your life and knew how to get it there.

Millions of illegals wanted to stay for a variety of reasons, most the ancient English would not understand.

Terrorists were just starting to think of America as a target. (Back then OBL was a CIA contract employee….).

Ordinary people loved guns; liberals hated and feared them.

Aside from loving guns (and Duran Duran and Alf) the people were largely asleep.

Nothing much has changed. Therein lies the danger of a repeat of history. We could end up with; a little tax reform (some cuts and some increases); amnesty (never to happen again – just like in 1986), and some more gun control.

Security Theater. Useless, pointless, demeaning bullsh!t that does nothing to deter terrorists. *Note: they switched from planes to cars, trucks, and knives (and bombs). Someone tell the idiots on the Ninth Circus. For us, the decent Americans, this is what we can look for why we enter an airport.

A mother who asked TSA agents at DFW International Airport for alternative screening for her son with special needs said they were “treated like dogs” and forced to miss a flight during an extensive security check, according to her Facebook post that has since gone viral.

But the Transportation Security Administration said in a prepared statement that it followed approved procedures to “resolve an alarm of the passenger’s laptop.”

Jennifer Williamson wrote Sunday morning that her son has a sensory processing disorder and that she asked agents to “screen him in other ways per TSA rules.”

An accompanying video shows a TSA agent patting down her son. The agent pats down his backside before moving to his front. She writes in the post they were kept for more than hour in the “horrifying” incident.

TSA disputed Williamson’s account, noting in its statement that the passengers were at the checkpoint for about 45 minutes, including the time it took to discuss screening procedures with the teen’s mother and the inspection of three carry-on items. The pat-down took about two minutes, according to the agency.

Two minutes. Forty-five minutes. 15 years. Who cares? One second of tyranny is too much. With the TSA you have two choices: 1) be irradiated while a pedo records a porno of you, or; 2) be sexually molested. All in the name of “safety”.

‘F it!

Clearly averting a terror attack here…

Watch the video and ask yourself if you want your sons, daughters, mothers, friends, or even enemies treated like this. Do you enjoy it? This is not America.

The courts and their enemy combatant accomplices say terrorists and invaders have rights. We do not. That is plain. Plainly not American.

This is why I do not fly commercial. And if I encounter these bastards at general aviation or an interstate rest area, you will all know about it. Join me or get in line to be raped.